[ChrisMarshallNY]

That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s easy to write an iOS app that can adapt to an iPad. If it doesn’t, then that means that some kind of outdated hybrid system was used, or they hired the absolute cheapest coders they could find, that used fearfully primitive techniques (or both).

I’ve been writing iOS apps for many years, and have never written one that doesn’t immediately adapt to an iPad. Even my cruddiest, written-in-two-hours test harnesses run on iPads without that ghastly “2X” button. Heck, my very first ObjC “hello world” app adapted to iPads. It’s pretty much built into the SDK.

TBH, I’m not even sure how to get the 2X to appear.

But it’s not my app, or my money. I just didn’t want to waste my time on a bad app. I doubt that I’m the reason they face-planted.

[jonas21]

If you don't check the box that says you support the iPad when building your app, then it will run on the iPad at iPhone resolution, with the option to scale up 2x to fill the screen.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Why on Earth would anyone do that?

If I want the app to only run on iPhone, then I’d sniff for it on startup, and present an alert (or, more likely, in my case, a screen), saying “iPhone only.” I own a couple of apps that do exactly that (not ones I wrote). There may be a way to provision the app, so it is not even made available on the App Store, for iPads. I don’t know. I’ve never done that. I think I have a couple of phone apps that have never even been made available for my iPads.

But an app like Clubhouse should run fine on iPad. I can’t think of any technical reason it shouldn’t run on iPad.

I have had dealings with extremely low-cost outsourcing shops, though, and they have a nasty habit of giving us exactly what we asked for; nothing more, nothing less. If the spec said “iPhone Only,” then I could see them turning that checkbox off, as it’s cheaper than writing a sniffer.

If someone does a bad job in one place (especially a highly visible place), then I generally assume that I am seeing the tip of the iceberg, and that they do a bad job, everywhere else. It’s been a fairly good assumption, in my experience.

I just feel that a “major buzz” app, like Clubhouse, should not present that iPhone resolution screen. It’s a perfect example of a brand-wrecking footgun.